Ask the Slot Expert: Peeking at my video poker neighbor's hand

When someone is playing next to me and they pause to think about how to play a hand, I frequently try to take a peek at their hand to see if I would have any questions about how to play it. I have to be quick because most players don't spend a lot of time weighing their options. If I'm lucky, they'll refer to a strategy card. That gives me not only more time to take a peek, but also some cover so the other player doesn't realize that I've stopped playing too and am looking at their screen.

I was playing NSU Deuces a few days ago at one of my preferred machines at the end of a bank. Someone was playing the machine at the other end of this bank of four machines. A mother and son eventually sat down to play the interior machines. Mom was next to me.

She would pause every once in a while. Sonny would then check her hand and give her advice on how to play it. After this happened a few times, I wanted to check if Sonny was giving good advice. Mom was playing Deuces Wild too.

The next time Mom paused again, Sonny said, "I would go for the royal flush."

I glanced to my left and watched Mom hold a suited Ace-Ten.

Oh, boy. I'm not saying that there is no paytable in which you would hold a suited Ace-Ten, I'm just saying that I don't know of one. I've never learned a strategy in which holding a suited Ace-Ten was the best option among all of the different hold combinations.

Of course, I didn't say anything. They didn't ask me which cards I would hold.

I wasn't so reticent when my cousin was playing Deuces next to me. Every once in a while, I would watch her play. I know that she has never learned a strategy and decides which cards to hold by -- well, I don't know.

On one hand I saw, she had the same option of holding a suited Ace-Ten. She held the partial royal.

After the hand was over -- she didn't get the royal -- I gave my little spiel about not knowing any paytable for which the strategy says to hold a suited Ace-Ten instead of some other combination or nothing at all.

A while later, she was confronted with the same decision. She hesitated for a few seconds -- I imagine she was deliberating about whether to follow my advice or stick with her non-strategy -- and held the Ace-Ten. (Again, no royal.)

I think most players' reasoning for holding the suited Ace-Ten is because they're playing for the royal. Why would they give up a chance at it?

Notice that I said that my cousin and Mom were playing Deuces, not NSU. They were both playing nickels and NSU isn't offered at that denomination.

That's one of the reasons I didn't "remind" my cousin that she shouldn't hold the Ace-Ten. Strategy mistakes at nickels don't cost much.

More importantly, my cousin (and Mom too, probably) play recreationally and will never play enough hands so strategy has a greater effect on their results than the luck of the draw.

This reminds me of another tutoring duo I encountered. A few years ago at The Palms, Plato was teaching Aristotle how to play video poker. Occasionally Plato would tell Aristotle that he should hold a particular set of cards for the current hand. I don't know how Aristotle could learn a strategy from just words. He wasn't writing the tips down. I need to see the strategy on a card to learn it.

You'll never guess who I ran into a few days later at Red Rock. (Well, you probably can guess.) Plato and Aristotle were playing at two machines in one of the banks of high-paying video poker machines. Plato was once again occasionally telling Aristotle which cards he should hold for a hand.

That was the last time our paths crossed. I haven't seen them since.

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